“Thank you, Megs. I needed the reminder.” Luke rose and tugged on her hand to encourage her out of the chair. “Come on. We’ve been at this nonstop for hours. Let’s take a break and clear our heads with a horseback ride.”
She hesitated, but stealing thirty minutes away was too tempting to turn down. The last couple of days had consisted of reading Franny’s case file and sitting by June’s bedside.
They bundled in jackets, and Luke led Megan across the yard. The sunshine offset the chill in the air, and a flock of birds soared overhead. Inside the barn, a horse stuck her neck out and nickered.
Megan’s mouth dropped open. “Fiona?”
She hurried down the aisle until she was standing in front of the animal. The distinct blaze down the horse’s nose was as familiar to Megan as her own foot.
“It is you.” She lifted her hand for the horse to smell before proceeding to stroke her. “What are you doing here, girl?”
“I bought her,” Luke said. “I have Remnant too. He’s down that way.”
She glanced behind her and caught sight of the beautiful black bay. A warmth spread through her chest.
“I had no idea… I can’t believe my aunt sold them to you.”
“She didn’t know. At least, not till after. I bought them at the rodeo auction.” He shrugged. “I couldn’t stand the thought of them going to strangers.”
His image blurred as tears flooded her eyes. She flung her arms around his neck and hugged him.
“Thank you, Luke.”
Megan’s heart skittered when his hand cupped the back of her head, his fingers dipping into the strands of her hair. His scent and warmth surrounded her, his arm encircling her waist and holding her close. He was hard muscle and rough edges, all masculine, and a direct contrast to her soft curves.
His phone trilled and Megan jumped back. Cold air replaced the heat of his body, and she shivered. Luke pulled the phone from his belt. Creases formed between his brows and he jabbed the reject button.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“It’s fine.”
That funny note was in his voice again. Luke almost always answered his phone, so why…
Her chest tightened as the most obvious answer popped into her mind. She backed up toward the barn entrance. “Seriously, I can give you a few minutes. I mean, it’s completely fine if you have a girlfriend you need to talk to.”
“Megs.”
“Don’t avoid answering her call on my account… There’s no reason to…”
A blush heated her cheeks, and she was rambling but couldn’t stop. The image of Luke tangled up in another woman’s arms, kissing her, flashed before Megan’s eyes. A small surge of panic sent her heart racing.
He stepped toward her. “Megs—”
“We’re both adults, and it’s been a long time since we broke up. It makes sense that you—”
“Megs, for heaven’s sake, let me talk. It’s not my girlfriend. It’s my dad.”
She froze, certain she’d heard him wrong. “What?”
“The phone calls. The person I keep avoiding. It’s not my girlfriend.” He took a deep breath. “It’s my dad.”
Luke mentally kicked himself the entire time they prepared the horses for riding. He shouldn’t have told her about his dad, but the look on her face when she realized he might have a girlfriend…it’d sucker punched him while he was still reeling from their hug. Things were shifting between them, and he didn’t have the strength to keep fighting it.
Megan brought Fiona next to his horse, Domino, as they rode across the property toward the woods along the outer edge.
“Okay, Luke.” She held the reins with one hand and waved the other in a circular motion. “Let’s have it. What’s going on with your dad?”
“Never mind,” he responded. She had enough problems on her plate without adding his. “Forget I said anything.”
“Uhhh, no. You cannot drop a bombshell like that and then just pretend it didn’t happen. Something is bothering you, so just spill it.” Her mouth quirked up. “Being a sounding board is the least I can do. You did save my life the other day.”
“I didn’t know we were keeping score.”
“Competitiveness is a Hunt family trait, right behind stubbornness and the ridiculously huge gap between our toes.”
He chuckled. They entered the cool confines of the forest. Sunlight dappled on the ground, and the trail was wide enough their horses could walk side by side.
“There isn’t much to tell, Megs. My dad moved nearby about six months ago. He wants to reconcile.”
“And you don’t?”
He shrugged. “I’ve lived a long time without him, and it’s not like I’m a kid anymore. I don’t need him. I consider Hank my real dad, anyway. He’s the one who raised me.”
“The last time you saw Patrick, you were fifteen, right?”
He nodded. Luke had never told Megan the details about his father, preferring to keep it all behind him. But his past was colliding with his present, brought into focus by his father’s appearance in town and his phone calls, and Luke couldn’t keep ignoring it forever.
“Patrick signed the paperwork terminating his parental rights at the lawyer’s office so Hank could adopt me. I refused to see him when that happened, so only my mom and Hank went. But somehow Patrick found out when the adoption was going before the judge and he showed up at the courthouse. He was drunk and said awful things. Stuff about how I’d betrayed him and that he disowned me.”
Domino tossed his head and Luke realized he was gripping the reins. He took a deep breath and forced his muscles to relax.
“I should’ve kept quiet, but I had a lot of anger built up toward him. My dad hadn’t been sober since I was six. I mean, he tried rehab, but it never stuck. There were a lot of promises broken. Times he was supposed to show up and didn’t. Or he would come drunk. Anyway, I couldn’t hold back anymore. I said some bad things, and it got heated. We ended up in a fistfight right
